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NO REPORTER NARRATION.

The severe weather sweeping across Italy has claimed at least 12 more lives on the island of Sicily bringing the overall death toll so far to 29, officials said on Sunday (November 4).

Nine members of one family died in Casteldaccia, near Palermo, as a rain-swollen river flooded a home.

The victims were spending the evening together to celebrate a birthday, Repubblica newspaper reported.

It also reported the death of one person in Vicari in Palermo region.

A spokesman for the Palermo Prefecture said on Sunday ten people had died in the region around the Sicilian capital Palermo due to torrential rain triggering landslides and flood waters.

Two more fatalities occurred in the region around the Sicilian town of Agrigento when the car they were travelling in was hit by a landslide, an official said.

Italy's Civil Protection Agency said the number of deaths caused by the wave of bad weather stood at 17, excluding the fatalities in Sicily.